Crashed
by magenwashere
Summary: Jack realizes some things about himself and Sky that make him act a little bit like a teenage girl. Because love can 'crash into you like a runaway train'. Characters may be a bit OOC, sorry. R R, Enjoy!


**AN: Oh, how I love the Power Rangers. In all shapes and forms. From age two to, let's say, twelve? My sole ambition was to become a Power Ranger. Now, at age seventeen, I write. Their characterizations may be a little off, and I'm sorry for that. Please Enjoy, and R+R. **

_Well I was moving at the speed of sound.  
Head-spinning, couldn't find my way around, and  
Didn't know that I was going down.  
Yeah, yeah.  
Where I've been, well it's all a blur.  
What I was looking for, I'm not sure.  
Too late and didn't see it coming.  
Yeah, yeah._

Jack had never been in love. Not really. He'd loved before, absolutely. He and Z had been together for so long, he'd forgotten that she wasn't his sister, and that they hadn't always known each other. For Z, he would do anything. She'd always be in his heart, but not in a romantic way. Besides her, there hadn't really been anyone else. Various people over the years, nights here and there. Usually just one night, maybe two. He never expected much of those nights with his lovers. Men, women, one night, two nights; it was mostly all the same. A couple of nights aren't enough to fall in love with someone, much less form a lasting bond. Falling in love was slow and sweet. It took time, gentleness, and cautiousness, especially. Love took time to set in and even longer to forge it together in a relationship.

Funny how much a guy who's never been _in _love knows about it.

So when it happened to him, needless to say, he wasn't ready. He'd always been good at doing things spur of the moment, and was the King of evading, and pulling random acts of awesomeness out of his back pocket. So it wasn't as if he _couldn't _deal with it…he just didn't know how. All of a sudden, all of his 'knowledge' of love, however limited, became unimportant and incorrect.

Love _wasn't _slow and soft, at least, not for him. He should've figured that when he did fall in love, it would be exactly that; falling, practically _crashing _into it harshly and quickly with no warning, and with someone who hated his guts. That was more his style, anyway.

Sky Tate. Just thinking the name made him stand up straighter, and tug at the hem of his uniform, or else live in fear of being corrected. Again.

Sky wasn't someone who got along easily with others. If anything, he tolerated people in general with stiff shoulders and a mostly tolerant attitude. He was always prepared for any situation, and read each edition of the SPD handbook like it was the most exciting thing ever.

Boring. (Only, in Jack's mind, it was said like a child-"Boooooor-ing!" complete with a pout.)

They clashed constantly, butting heads over the smallest things, and Jack had originally thought it was just because Sky wanted to be the Red Ranger. If it wasn't that, then it just had to be that they couldn't get along. But was it something else? Something underneath the hostility and the barely concealed distrust?

Curiosity killed that cat, Jack. Killed it _dead. _

But of course, he had to know. So he started watching Sky, trying to figure out just what _it _was, or even if there was something. He started going over every conversation, every argument, looking for clues. And boy, did he find them.

Sky's shoulder's tensed up when he was upset. His jaw would clench, and his lips would press into a thin line. No matter how frustrated he got, Sky always held it in; not speaking freely pissed him off, but he respected SPD too much to lose his temper for no reason. Sky would frown, and it made Jack want to rest his hand on Sky's brow and smooth out the stress and the headache. That probably should have been a clue, but Jack could be a little slow on the uptake sometimes, so it didn't click. Not then.

It _could_ have clicked when Sky's 'friend' Drew came back. It _could_ have clicked when he saw them standing so close together (closer than friends stand together, anyway). Jack couldn't explain why he was so cautious around Drew, and angry when he and Sky went off somewhere. Maybe it was how easily Sky laughed with Drew. It could even be the look of complete adoration on Sky's face, that automatic trust that pissed Jack off. The unconditional love that Sky only granted to the most important people in his life, apparently, did not include Jack. _How sweet, _Jack thought as he watched Sky, Drew, and Syd talk. _Everything's okay when Drew's around. Sky has permission to like us when someone he trusts is around. _

It made Jack so sick he wanted to vomit. Stupid Drew.

When Drew turned out to be a dirty, lousy traitor, Jack squashed down all thoughts of "I WAS RIGHT!" and focused on making sure Sky knew that the team was on his side. (He wanted to make sure Sky knew _Jack_ was on his side.)

Then, out of the blue (no pun intended) he was given _a sign. _All the preparation he'd gone through, all of the watching (he was not stalking Sky) and thinking (too much) came down to one moment. Sky was sitting on the front fountain, scrubbing it with a toothbrush. After handing him his bracelet (seriously, two guys exchanging friendship bracelets did not make sense in Jack's mind) Jack pulled out a spare toothbrush to help.

"Jack, stop, you don't have to do that." Sky complained.

"I know." Jack looked up at Sky through his braids, and BAM! It slapped him in the face, rolled him down a hill, and threw him off a mountain.

He was in love with Sky.

Before he could even register it, or anything that came with it, his natural defense mechanism of "ignore it until it becomes un-ignorable" kicked in. So he smiled and laughed with Sky, helped him finish his punishment until the front entrance literally _sparkled. _After that was done, he went to his room and slumped down into his bed, raising his pillow to his face…

And promptly screamed out all of his frustration into it like a teenage girl.

_How did this happen? _He thought moodily. _It doesn't make any sense. I'm not even physically attracted to him…am I? _His thoughts wandered as he thought about Sky's body, long, lean and muscular. Jack knew how toned he was from their sessions in the weight room. Sessions that were often done shirtless. _Is Sky that dusty gold color all over his body? _Plus, everything about Sky was big. Not only was he tall, and broad-shouldered, his chest was wide and his arms and legs were thick with muscle. (Not obnoxiously thick. Just enough to make Jack and Bridge feel fat when they ate junk food.) His hands were big, tan and long-fingered.

Okay. So he was physically attracted to Sky; who wouldn't be? But wouldn't it make sense if they were actually, like, the same body type? Jack wasn't sure what two guys in a relationship looked like, but weren't the supposed to be similar, and not total opposites? Jack was about the average height for a man, but compared to Sky, that was still pretty short. Sky's hair was short, spiky and blond; Jack had long black dreadlocks. Sky had this graceful walk, loaded with authority. When he walked into a room, people knew he meant business. Jack was easygoing, not drawing attention to himself until the right moment.

A relationship required more than physical attraction and opposite body types didn't really matter. They might be big parts of it, but not the only ones.

So what was it about Sky? He wasn't easy to get along with. He didn't joke very often, or hand out with the team as much. The way he smiled sometimes made it seem like there was a different person behind the regulations and rules. It made the team forget that he could be the biggest jerk on the planet when he wanted to be. He could fight with Syd for hours on how inappropriate her clothes were, and how they were against the SPD dress code, then been seen in her room an hour later, helping her sort them. He would roll his eyes every time Bridge found a new gadget to mess with, but listen patiently and look interested while Bridge went on and on.

In short, Sky was a good guy. Hard-headed and stubborn as hell, but still, a really good guy. Maybe that's why Jack loved him.

_And then I crashed into you,  
And I went up in flames.  
Could've been the death of me,  
But then you breathed your breath in me.  
And I crashed into you,  
Like a runaway train.  
You will consume me,  
But I can't walk away._


End file.
